Online content provider system and method

ABSTRACT

An intelligent data content provider system and method for subscriber postings and queries are monitored and evaluated to determine what types of content to retrieve, how to organize such content, and how to present the same. A series of community and customized software robots are used by the subscribers (and automatically in some cases by the system) to locate, retrieve and sort general interest and/or customized content from other online sources. By studying subscriber query and message traffic, the system can self-tune itself automatically to constantly adjust content retrieval, storage and presentation in response to changing community interests, desires, and the like. Because subscriber feedback is accounted for and incorporated into the design of the message board system, this enhances the experience for online users, resulting in increased system usage, subscriber retention characteristics, etc.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of Ser. No. 09/309,711 filedMay 11, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,493,703 entitled System and Method forImplementing Intelligent Online Community Message Board, which is herebyincorporated by reference.

CROSS REFERENCE TO MICROFICHE APPENDIX

Appendix A, which forms part of this disclosure and is incorporated byreference herein, is a microfiche appendix consisting of 2 sheets ofmicrofiche having a total of 171 frames. This sheet of microfiche wassubmitted previously in connection with parent application Ser. No.09/309,711 now Pat. No. 6,493,703 and is therefore publicly availablefrom such file. Microfiche Appendix A is a list of computer programs andrelated data in an embodiment of the present invention, which isdescribed more completely below.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to an online electronic message boardsystem. The invention is especially suited for online services thatrequire intelligent monitoring of subscriber tastes and interests sothat relevant content can be located, extracted and presented inaccordance with subscriber derived feedback information.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialthat is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the xerographic reproduction by anyone of the patentdocument or the patent disclosure in exactly the form it appears in thePatent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwisereserves all copyright rights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

Online bulletin board systems (BBS) and discussion group boards arewell-known in the art. Surprisingly, however, over the past 15 years orso they have failed to evolve significantly in sophistication and/orease of use. In fact, compared to the developments made in applicationssoftware, user interfaces, internet browsers, etc., online messageboards are still remarkably primitive. At this time, some popular stockdiscussion boards known to applicants are located on the internet at thefollowing locations:

www.dejanews.com

messages.yahoo.com/index.html

boards.fool.com

www.techstocks.com

www.ragingbull.com

www.remarq.com

Of these, the fool.com board website maintained by an organization knownas “The Motley Fool” is probably the most technologically sophisticatedand user-friendly. However, this message board, as with each of theboards above, is constricted by the fact that it relies on HTML coding,which, while easy to implement on the provider side, is relativelystatic, and not extremely functional from the user's perspective. HTMLis also easily handled by conventional user web browsers as well, andthis is another reason why it is in widespread use.

A conventional prior art message board is illustrated in FIGS. 1A and1B. As seen here, an interface 100 for an internet service providerpermits the user to visualize a display area 110 which includes a numberof posted messages 115 for a particular subject, which, in this case,involves company A. These posted messages are generated by users havingaccess to the website maintained by the service provider, and caninclude information, commentary, etc., on any one of a variety ofdifferent subjects pertaining to company A, such as, for example,discussions of recent stock movements, products offered, press releases,etc. The users (subscribers) of the service provider compose thesemessages at their local computer systems, and then send (post) the sameto a server at the website, where they are screened (usually forimproper content), indexed (to identify topic, author, date, etc.) andstored for later retrieval by other users. Each message, therefore, isposted by a user-author within the logical area for Company A accordingto topic, and date, and such information is usually displayed in aregion 115 of display area 110. A list of such messages, therefore,appears to the user when he/she visits the message board, and selectsthe logical area reserved for Company A. This list for Company A can beorganized by topic, author, date, etc. by clicking an activation buttonassociated with each of the labels “Topic,” “Author” and/or “Date.” Anadditional set of control buttons 125 can be used by the user to performsuch functions as “Request” —i.e., to retrieve the message highlightedby the cursor(the entry marked in shaded form), “Create” —which allowsthe user to compose a new message for the topic in question, and “Find”—which allows the user to search the list of messages in the topic areafor selected content. As seen further in FIG. 1b, when the user Requestsa particular message, display area 110 is replaced by a differentdisplay area 130, which shows the user the message entry in question. Atthis point, the user can read the content of the message as provided inarea 135, and can then respond to the same by activating a “Reply”button 140. This has the effect, of course, of posting yet anothermessage under the topic in question, identified with an author namecorresponding to the user.

This message board system, while commonly used in the industry, is notextremely functional or user friendly. First, from a high levelperspective, when first visiting the message board, the user ispresented with a first screen as seen in FIG. 1C which forces them toselect from a broad area of subjects broken down as Company A, toCompany B, Company C, etc. This means that a decision must be made bythe user early on to narrow the focus of his/her query, and thisrestricts their later retrieval of relevant material that may be ofinterest to them. Accordingly, it is not extremely accurate or flexible,since the user must return to this first search staging area anytimethey want to change subjects.

Second, assuming that the user is at the second stage of the prior artsearch interface shown in display area 110, and wants to examine aparticular message, display area 110 vanishes from his/her view, so theyare unable to jump to any other arbitrary selected message locatedwithin the topic area. Instead, the user is confined to moving throughthe messages (using interface 130, which is essentially yet a thirdstage of the interface) sequentially, typically using the “Prior” and“Next” buttons shown in area 140, which have the effect of movingbackwards/forwards respectively through the list of messages for thetopic. Since the display list of all the posted messages from the secondstage is now out of sight, the user can experience significantfrustration in trying to find another message that may have caughthis/her attention during the time they were examining display area 110.The alternative, of course, is to close area 130 and return to thedisplay area 110, and this option does allow the user to see the listagain. This alternative is not attractive, however, since it requiresadditional keystrokes, and has the effect of now closing area 130 so itis no longer visible by the user.

In short, there is no easy way in the art to browse through messages ona bulletin board in random access fashion, or to see both a message listand content for a particular message at the same time. Also, the usermust constantly transcend different stages of visual interfaces to moveabout during the search process, because such stages do not exist in anyintegrated, harmonized fashion.

Third, while the user is at the second stage of the search process,he/she is limited to seeing the messages in display area 110 as they arestored at the website; in other words, indexed by Topic, Author, Date,etc., but with no additional screening/filtering capability. This meansthat the user is sometimes (depending on popular the topic is) forced tobrowse through hundreds of messages (postings) to find an item ofinterest. While the prior art does allow some searching capabilitywithin this second stage, it is relatively primitive in that it cannottranscend the logical area bound by messages for Company A; in otherwords, it is not possible to search across all subjects for a keyword ofinterest. Again, this means that the user is not receiving completeinformation, and this detracts from the appeal of such system. Also, thesearch constructs possible with the prior system are very limited, anddo not allow for advance filtering techniques, so that, for example, theuser can use multiple filters to find content. For instance, locatingpostings by a specific author having specific keywords is not possibleat this time. Moreover, within this second stage, the user mustformulate and define his/her own search queries for each new query, andthen pass this request to the service provider, where it is processed toreturn relevant hits to the user. This can take time, of course, andbecause this portion of the interface has no “memory” —in the sense ofremembering the user's predilections and search interests/constructs—theuser is required to waste time each time he/she visits this stage tore-formulate the search query to retrieve messages of interest. It wouldbe far more advantageous, for example, if the interface could learn,remember, and automate common query and filtering criteria from theuser.

These and other noticeable limitations reduce the utility andutilization of message boards, and this in turn results in a number ofadverse consequences for service providers, including fewer subscribers,reduced revenue, etc. These limitations, are due, in large part, tolimitations in HTML, which do not provide for easy creation andmanipulation of active display areas for the user. While otherimplementations of message boards might provide additional functionalitybeyond that described for the example above, applicants are nonethelessunaware of any message boards that provide flexible but comprehensiveuser selection of content.

Furthermore, while more advanced and useful interfaces exist for otherapplications, they have not been successfully adapted to date inconnection with a message board system. For example, a conventionalcommercial news reader by Netscape is illustrated generally in FIG. 1D.This program has the advantage of a flexible interface for reviewingnews stories, but does not provide any intelligent support for multiplelevels of bulletin board message organization, message querying, etc. Inother words, the content sources (on the left side of the screen) aresimply newsgroups, which represent data that is in raw, unorganized andnon-descriptive form as posted by various individuals within suchnewsgroups. The user is left to guess and wonder about the nature andscope of the various selections (newsgroups), and/or what subjectmatter, classes, sub-classes, etc., are within such selections. As themessage items are created by individuals, it is often the case thatthese message items are not placed within an appropriate category(newsgroup), because the user does not have the time, interest orinclination to make certain that his/her message is placed in the rightarea for others to see it. Thus, the raw data examined by such interfaceis not intelligently created ab initio, and this means that it is notclassified or managed (i.e. by subject matter/class, or in accordancewith groupings that might be more germane to a particular community ofusers). This lack of organization in the content, of course, handicapsthe functionality of the interface as well. Consequently, while thisinterface has some apparent advantages that could be imparted tobulletin board systems, it does not provide an optimal solution to theoverall problem of identifying relevant content for a group of users,and then providing a tool for easily locating and browsing through suchcontent.

Unlike most other application programs, most prior art online messageboards have no flexible front end; thus, it is extremely difficult toidentify, cull out and review large collections of unorganized messages.Moreover, the content presented at such sites, and the ways forpresenting such content to subscribers, is left entirely to thediscretion of the service provider. There is no effort made tointelligently monitor the needs, interests, etc., of the subscribers,and/or to find/tailor content (and/or its expression) based on suchobservations. Accordingly, such online message board systems do nottruly or accurately reflect the needs, interests, etc., of its users,which reduces their appeal and attractiveness to users. This in turnmeans reduced advertising revenues and/or subscriber fees.

These limitations in prior art message boards have also inhibited trueelectronic “community” based mass sharing and learning of informationcontent. In other words, the apparent initial promise of the Internet tobring together thousands of users so that to they can collectively shareinformation, opinions, insights, lessons, etc., has not been effectivelyrealized to date. In large part this is due to a combination of factors,including the fact that information content from users and other sourcesis not created initially or maintained by service providers in a mannerthat makes it efficiently processable for user perusals. Even then, asnoted above, retrieving this information in any intelligent fashion isstilted significantly by limitations in the search/retrieval interfaceengines of current bulletin board systems used by service providers. Inshort, there is an abundance of data online that would be of interest tobroad classes of users, but no easy way to extract meaningfulinformation, because it must be manually reviewed in inefficient ways.Accordingly, the creation of true collective intelligence electroniccommunities would be considerably enhances by a system that gathers andstores information from the community members automatically andintelligently, and then permits users in such community to be able toeasily, flexibly and controllably glean and share selected insight fromthe experience, opinions, actions and facts from other users.

Tying all these factors together, it is apparent, too, that there isconsiderable need for an improved online service that integrates anintelligent data collection and indexing system with a more functional,easy to use front end interface for analyzing such data.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention aims to provide a system and method for overcomingthe aforementioned problems in the prior art.

One object of the present invention, therefore, is to provide a systemand method for implementing an online data service that includesintelligent data content gathering, storage and retrieval, so thatinterests of subscribers of such data service are taken intoconsideration for purposes of building content, interfaces, or subjectmatter classifications used in such service;

A related object of the present invention is that such online dataservice be able to better provide a community of users with easierinformation extraction, so that users can filter, consolidate and learnfrom their collective experiences, knowledge and opinions of othercommunity members;

A further object of the present invention is that such online dataservice be able to consider the previously defined interests of itsmembers, or their status level within such community, while interactingwith such users, so that such users are afforded treatment commensuratewith their needs and standing in such community;

Yet another related object of the present invention is to provide anonline data service which intelligently stores message content, anddynamically builds additional content of interest to the users of thesame in the form of content subject matter groupings, classes andsub-classes, so that content query clusters are easily accessible andreviewable at any time by users without additional processing or timedelays;

A still further related object is to provide capability for such onlinedata service to collect, review and analyze posting and query entries byusers, so that information from the same can be polled, tabulated,indexed and presented in forms that are of interest to the users of suchonline data service;

Another associated object of the present invention is to furnish animproved system and method for handling message traffic on an onlinebulletin board system;

A related object of the present invention is to provide users with anintegrated and unified graphical interface for posting and retrievingmessages from an online bulletin board system which interface isflexible and highly functional;

Still another related object of the present invention is to providefunctionality in such graphical interface for permitting a user to viewthe aforementioned content query clusters, as well as other informationtabulated by the online data service;

Yet another related object is to permit a user of an online service tointeract with search robots located on an internet server to helpformulate, execute and remember search queries of interest to such user.

A preferred message management system of the present invention can beused with an online electronic message board, and generally includes: acontent sorting routine that runs on a computer associated with themessage board system for sorting electronic messages and storing themsuch that they are searchable by users according to informationcategories. A second query handling routine also executing on this samecomputer is configured so that: (i) it can receive a user queryinitiated within a user query interface operating on the user's computersystem, and (ii) it can locate a selected set of electronic messages inresponse to the user query; and (iii) it can transmit such selected setof electronic messages to the user query routine interface in a formsuitable for perceiving by the user. The query handling routine ispreferably implemented as a set of community and customized searchrobots. Thus, for ease of searching, reviewing, etc., the messagemanagement system interacts with the user using only a single screendisplay portion of the user query interface.

As noted above, the user query is based on predefined query parametersavailable to all of the users within the user query interface, so thatthey correspond directly to the predefined information categories, andeveryone using the message board can access such messages usingcommunity based robots. A user query can also be handled, however, whenit is instead based on customized query parameters for a particularuser, so that a customized search robot on the message management systemis invoked for locating the relevant electronic messages. These lattertypes of electronic messages may or may not be made available to allusers of the system, depending on the message board system provider'spreference.

A message posting routine receives and stores subscriber message dataitems.

These subscriber message data items are preferably coded so that theycan also be classified and located based on predefined informationcategories.

In another aspect of this invention, the query handling routineautomatically downloads those messages corresponding to informationcategories previously indicated as of most interest to the particularuser. This can occur at the beginning of a session, or during idleperiods, so that the user is given a faster response time for messagesof interest to him/her.

A tracking system of the present invention monitors and analyzes messagecontent traffic from the subscribers and other sources. For example,this routine preferably examines user query parameters, retrievedmessages, user postings, retrieved content from off site locations,etc., This analysis can be used to tabulate data pertaining to frequencyof information category usage, user author preferences, interfacepreferences, etc., and can be made available to the users of the messageboard. This information can also be used for automatically modifying theuser interface on a periodic basis (to reflect common usage patterns) toimprove the look and feel of the same, for determining new potentialsubject areas for content extraction, for adding/modifying new groupsand/or classes for subscriber message data items, etc.

A content building system of the present invention operating on themessage board system facilitates building a database of informationitems accessible by the online subscribers. In this system, a contentextraction program locates and extracts selected information from one ormore remote online network servers, based on search criteria specifiedby an operator of the message board system. A sorting program sorts theselected information, as well as subscriber messages, in accordance witha classification scheme, which is also specified by the operator. Thisresults in a plurality of data files of sorted information items, eachof the sorted information items being coded to fall within one or morecategories of the classification scheme. Thereafter, information itemscan be located and reviewed by subscribers through subscriber queriesperformed in accordance with subscriber selected query parameterslogically related to one or more categories of said classificationscheme. A database management program integrates and storing theselected information and subscriber messages in conventional fashion.

Another aspect of this invention is that the search criterion andclassification scheme are based in part on recommendations provided bythe aforementioned message tracking system, or are automaticallygenerated. A prioritization scheme for retrieving content is alsopreferably correlated with a frequency of occurrence of subjectcategories used in subscriber messages and/or subscriber queries, sothat information for subject categories occurring more frequently isretrieved at a higher priority than information for subject categoriesoccurring less frequently. In this manner, the system automaticallybuilds content in proportion to subscriber popularity of such content,such that information for any particular type of content is retrieved ata rate proportional to such to subscriber popularity.

A preferred embodiment of an electronic message board system for use bya community of users includes the aforementioned routines of the messagemanagement system, tracking system, and content building systems. Suchmessage board system preferably monitors the interests of its users, sothat content extraction decisions, content extraction schedulingdecisions, message classifications, and interfaces are continuouslymodified or tuned to reflect feedback gleaned from studying suchpreferences. In another variation of the invention, user requests(queries, postings, etc.) are prioritized based on status levels of theusers.

The methods practiced by the aforementioned message management system,tracking system, content building system and electronic message boardsystem represent other useful aspects of the present inventions that canbe employed advantageously in connection with a online message board,and are further described herein.

Although the invention is described below in a preferred embodimentassociated with an online bulletin board system dedicated primarily tobusiness information for trading financial instruments, it will beapparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention would bebeneficially used in many other applications where it is desirable toprovide users with a fast, easy, and comprehensive system that minimizesburden on a user searching for relevant data content.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1a-1 c are visual depictions of the format of a typical prior artmessage board as it appears to an online user looking at the same with aconventional internet browser.

FIG. 1d is a screen capture of a commonly used prior art news reader.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating various facets of the presentinvention, including a preferred embodiment of an online electronicmessage board system that extracts content from various online sourcesand interacts with a graphical user interface designed for querying suchcontent on such system.

FIG. 3a is a flow chart illustrating the basic operation of the messageboard graphical user interface of the present invention.

FIG. 3b is a visual depiction of the format of a preferred embodiment ofa message board interface of the present invention as it appears to anonline user looking at the same with a conventional internet browser.

FIG. 3c is a visual depiction of the control options presented to a userwhen selecting an optional customization feature for the interface shownin FIG. 3b.

FIG. 3d is a visual depiction of the format of an optional messagetabulating feature that can be used with the message board interface ofthe present invention.

FIG. 4 is a simplified diagram detailing the basic components of apreferred embodiment of a content collection and posting system of thepresent invention as it would be implemented using certain softwareextraction/posting robots running on a server associated with an onlinedata service provider.

FIG. 5 is a simplified diagram detailing the basic components of apreferred embodiment of message indexing/retrieval system of the presentinvention as it would be implemented by a database management routinerunning on a server associated with an online data service provider.

FIG. 5a illustrates examples of tabulation databases used with thepresent inventions.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart detailing the general operation of a preferredembodiment of a content search system of the present invention as itwould be implemented using certain community and custom search softwarerobots running on a server associated with an online data serviceprovider.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Overview of System Components andFunctions

FIG. 2 illustrates the main components of various facets of the presentinvention. A preferred embodiment of an online electronic message boardsystem 200 includes a high speed, high capacity network server 220 usedby an online service provider. Server 220 includes a number and varietyof software routines for servicing the functional and operationalrequirements of the online service provider.

First, to keep the online service with current information of interestto the community of users of such service, a number of independentsoftware content extraction/posting robots 230 perform raw data contentextraction, on an as-needed basis, from content sources 225 using a setof program routines suitable for execution on server 220. Communitysearch robots 231 and customized search robots 232 help build predefinedcollections of message postings from such raw content, based inaccordance with broad and narrow guidelines as discussed in more detailbelow. These predefined collections of message postings provide asignificant improvement over the prior art, which, as mentioned above,merely uses raw content feeds for users. Instead of having to manuallyreview and sort out which newsgroups may be of interest, the presentsystem does all the work for the user, and breaks the data down intoclear, manageable categories that are easily understood, and moreimportantly, logically structured to mirror interests and organizationalconstructs within the community of users.

As used herein, the term “content” is intended in its broadest sense toencompass not only electronic text documents that can be rendered intohuman-readable form, but also images, pictures, audio recordings, andother data forms which can be processed, sorted and stored in electronicform for later retrieval by a human operator. Further as used herein,the term “message” can refer to a type of content, as well as explicitand implicit information carried in or as part of such content, whichinformation can be used for deriving the substance, meaning and/orappropriate classification of such message.

Generally speaking, the term “postings” refer to content/messagesgenerated by human users. Contributions from subscriber-user postings ofmessages are handled by posting logic routine 235. Finally, a databaseroutine 240 executing on server 220 maintains a database of data items242, and constructs indexes 241 of the same in accordance with rules,instructions and feedback from the service provider, and in cooperationwith community search robots 231 and customized search robots 232.

These routines form the essential parts of the software on server 220 asviewed from the perspective of the present invention, but it isunderstood, of course, that other important and necessary softwarecomponents of server 220 have been omitted for purposes of clarifyingthe teachings of the present inventions. As used herein, a “robot”generally refers to an intelligent software based agent that can beprogrammed to automatically perform a series of tasks under veryflexible rules and conditions.

Connected to server 220 across a data link 245 (such as a telephoneline) is a user computer system (not shown) running a conventional webbrowser (also not shown) for viewing and interacting with programs anddata located at a website maintained by server 220. The details of theuser's computer system and web browser are not material to the presentinvention, and are therefore not discussed at length here. The onlyimportant criterion is that such web browser and computer system havethe capability of handling Java™ based applets (or similarly capablecode) which applets contain software code associated with permitting theuser to operate/interact with interaction window 250, community searchrobots 231, customized search robots 232, and posting logic 235. Ingeneral, interaction window 250 is a highly flexible, integratedinteractive window that facilitates message search query formulations,message retrievals, message postings, etc., on the part of the user. Inresponse to such message queries, search robots on server 220 return anumber of “hits” or matching records 251. The manner in whichinteractive window 250 assists in these operations and coordinates withposting logic 235 and search robot 230 is discussed in more detail belowin connection with FIG. 3.

Returning to the operation of the search robots in FIG. 2: search robotsare well-known in the art, and a basic variation of these can be foundin conventional online search engines operated by such online providersas Yahoo!, Excite, AOL, etc. These search robots can be easily modifiedto perform various tasks associated with the present inventions. Inparticular, a first kind of extraction robot 230 of the presentinvention periodically retrieve content (i.e., material that may be ofgeneral interest to the subscribers to the online service provider) fromoutside source such as UseNet and/or other online message board systems.The content is “extracted” from these sources according to set of rules,filters or criteria specified by the online provider, and/or gleanedfrom community based traffic monitorings as noted below. This processcan be highly automated so that, for example, a particular search robotcan be instructed to search at a particular time of the day forinformation concerning a particular company at a particular third partyinternet server. The benefits of this approach include the fact that themessage board system 200 provides up-to date, comprehensive content on avariety of subjects. Furthermore, this content is intelligentlyclassified in accordance with the concepts commonly understood by theuser and/or the community, so that the need for manual, cumbersomereview of individual messages throughout dozens of newgroups withnon-illuminating identifiers (newsgroups tend to have cryptic,non-helpful names that do not distinguish between subject areas verywell) is substantially eliminated. This results in greater enjoyment andless frustration for users during an interactive online session.

In practice, content extraction robots 230 are used initially by theservice provider to construct an initial content base before the messageboard system is opened up for subscribers. This ensures that the usersof such service will have a preexisting library of information to drawupon when the service is first used. Before this point, however, theinformation is broken down and sorted into a number of subject matterareas, which subject matter areas represent logical collections ofcontent according to a (potentially different) set of service provider(or user) specific rules, filters, criteria, etc. These logicalgroupings are based both on perceived interests of the subscribers ofthe online service provider, and the requirements of database managementroutine 240. For example, a service provider may request that a searchrobot 230 extract content (in this case, posted messages, pressreleases, news reports, etc.) about companies in a particular industryfrom a particular discussion board and/or news site. After receivingcontent from such source, it can be stored in database 270. At the sametime, or after this point, this information can be divided according toa sorting mechanism that includes such groupings as (1) stock tradingrelated information (i.e., stock price, patterns, fundamentals, and thelike); (2) product related information; (3) marketing relatedinformation; (4) sales/financial information; (5) author/source; (6)date, etc. The information in these subject matter areas is then brokendown further into class and sub-classifications as desired, and thenstored as additional indices 261 by database management routine 240.This process is dynamic, iterative, and continuous, so that a number ofcommunity/custom search robots may be simultaneously parsing database270 to create, update or remove their associated subject matterarea/class/subclass indices. In contrast to community search robots 231,whose efforts result in compilations/indices usable by the community asa whole, customized search robots 232 create logical collections ofmessages based on individual user filtering criteria. To ensure that theindependent functionality provided by customized search robots 232 doesnot overwhelm server 220, only a limited number of such robots are madeavailable to subscribers.

These implementations are but examples, of course, and the actual numberof subject matter areas/classifications/subclassifications, etc. will bea function of the subject matter in question, the needs/desires of thetarget subscriber base of the service provider, the capabilities andstorage of server 220, and similar considerations. As discussed below,search robots 231 and 232 also have the capacity to be programmed withfeedback information gleaned concerning the interests of users of theonline service as they post entries through posting logic 235, and thisfeature permits them to further define and automatically create contentsubject matter areas that are of interest to such users.

Database management routine 240 is generally responsible forcoordinating data storage and retrieval operations. As data is received(in the form of outside content or user postings) it is stored in recordform in one more data files 270 in conventional fashion. In addition,however, logical indexes 261 are also created by database managementroutine 240, so that such records are easily accessible in accordancewith the aforementioned clustering/sorting mechanisms. In general, thestructure and operation of database management routine 240 is fairlyconventional, and therefore any contemporary server database managementsoftware package (i.e., such as DB2) can be used with the presentinvention if properly configured to interact with the various extractionand search robots and posting logic 235.

Posting logic software routine 235 interacts with interaction window 250through data link 245, and operates primarily to processmessages/content added by users of the online data service. In otherwords, as users create messages/content, they can “post” thisinformation at the website maintained by server 220, so that other userscan later retrieve and examine the same.

Details of User Interaction Window

15FIG. 3a is a flow chart illustrating the basic operation of aninteractive window interface 300 implemented as part of an applicationprogram that is downloaded from the remote server as one or more Java™applets, and which program thereafter is executed within a conventionalinternet browser program by a java virtual machine on the user'scomputer system. In a preferred embodiment the present interface is usedin connection with a message/bulletin board system 200 to permitindividual and community based online sharing of such information as:(1) motivations, opinions, reasonings, etc. for trading financialinstruments; (2) company and/or commodity information; (3) equity and/orcommodity pricing, pricing patterns, volume patterns, etc. As willbecome apparent, this interface is logically constructed and presentedto the user in a manner that exploits the convenient and intelligentorganization of the message data as it was created earlier, so that itcan provide functionality that is far superior to the prior artinterfaces described above. A preferred embodiment of such system,identified as “ProphetTalk,” can be visited online at a websitemaintained by the assignee at www. ProphetTalk.com. While the presentembodiment is presented in the context of a financial discussion groupmessage board system, the present invention can be used in connectionwith electronic communities interested in a variety of subject matter,and is not limited therefore in this respect.

During an interactive online session at step 301 the user has alreadyestablished connection with the online service provider, and hasaccessed the main website page maintained by server 220 in conventionalfashion using any well-known web browser. At this point, the user ispresented with a single message search/display screen, containingseparate screen display areas for subject matter area query buttons,listings of messages, substance of such messages, subject matter areaquery menus, control buttons, and other conventional window manipulationtools (scrolling, sizing, etc.).

At step 302, if there is no query filter already in place, the user ispermitted to activate one of the subject matter area query buttons, sothat a detailed subject matter area query menu is presented. Forexample, the user may be interested in looking at message entries postedunder the broad subject matter area “Stocks.” Depressing this subjectmatter area query button causes the subject matter area query menu todisplay a number of classifications falling under such group subjectmatter, such as, in the case of a Stock subject matter area query,classifications corresponding to companies sorted alphabetically. Atthis step 303, therefore, the user can select messages falling under theclassification “Company A” for example. Alternatively, in lieu oflooking under subject matter area “Stocks,” the user can insteadactivate a “Custom” subject matter area query button, and formulate anew filter or search query based on such subject matter area filtering.In any event, at step 304, in response to the user specified searchparameters, a request is sent to community search robot 231 (orcustomized search robot 232) at server 220, which in turn queriesdatabase management routine 240 to retrieve entries meeting the user'ssearch/filter criteria. Because these entries are already indexedaccording to predefined subject matter area/class/subclass indices 261,a group of the same matching the user's query criteria are easily andrapidly located. These entries are then transmitted to the user'scomputer system, and presented in abbreviated listing format (i.e.,author, date, excerpt from entry, etc.) within a group listing area ofthe interactive window interface at step 305. When the user selects oneof the retrieved entries from the group of messages at step 306, thefull text of the message is displayed in a separate message contentdetailed display area at step 307 where it can be viewed in its entiretywithout losing view of the retrieved message group listing area.

The user can then continue to review retrieved messages from theretrieved group using conventional scrolling buttons, or even reply toone or more of the same at step 308. At such time, a message entry issent from the user's computer system to server 220 where it is posted byposting logic 235 to an appropriate subject matter area/class/subclassindex 241 based on both the content and context of the message entry. Bythis it is meant that every posting is analyzed by posting logic 235 todetermine where it should be classified, and that such analysis canentail either: (1) always tagging the posting with the same subjectmatter area/class/subclass identifier as the entry it is responding to(when this is the case); (2) tagging the posting with an identifierbased on the subject matter area/class/subclass filter in place at theuser interface at the time of the posting (when not replying to aposting); and/or (3) processing the text of the posting to determinewhere it should be classified. In any event, each posting is sortedand/or tagged with one or more additional parameter field(s) specifyingone or more categories which such posting should fall under. In otherwords, unlike the prior art, which only indexes the text of messagesusually for later search retrieval, the present invention alsointelligently classifies and stores messages by subject matterarea/class/subclass in advance based on understanding the context of theposting. For example, if a user responds with a reply posting to anoriginal posting in a particular subject matter area, the presentinvention tags the reply posting with a parameter field specifying thatthe reply posting should also be classified in the same area as theoriginal posting. Other potential classifications/subclassifications canbe given to messages depending on logical inferences that can be drawnfrom their substance. For example, while a message might only mention aparticular company name, it may be desirable to also classify suchmessage by industry area as well, since this latter information isusually discernible from the company name. Thus, such reply messagewould include classification parameters corresponding to two differentsub-classifications, including by company name and by industry, andcould later be retrieved by either sub-classification selection.Finally, when posting replies, the user is given the option of sendingthe reply only where it can be seen by other authorized members of thecommunity (i.e., subscribers to the online service provider) or to otherthird party message board systems (i.e., locations from which content isbeing extracted by extraction robots 230). In the latter case,extraction robots 230 can be given functionality for both posting andextracting operations for a particular third party content provider.

While the operation of the present interactive interface window from atemporal perspective appears similar to that of prior art systems, thedifferences are actually quite dramatic. This is because, as illustratedbetter in FIG. 3b, all of the operations described with reference toFIG. 3a, occur simultaneously within a single window. In other words,unlike prior art message board systems, the user of the presentinvention can select broad group/subject matter areas, and then search,list and review groups of message entries all within a single,unchanging visual interface. The complete search/retrieval experiencetakes place in the context of a simple, dynamic, and flexible interface,and this results in improved ease of use, superior navigability, etc.

FIG. 3b depicts the screen appearance of a preferred embodiment of amessage board interface 300 of the present invention, as such wouldappear to an online user using a conventional internet browser. Assuggested earlier, this message board interface 300 is implemented aspart of a program based on a Java™ applet that is downloaded into theuser's computing system by server 220. As used herein, the term“interface” refers generally to either/both the code for such appletand/or the physical manifestations of images and input/output mechanismsprovided by such code in connection with the user's computer system.

As mentioned above, the present interface provides several advantagesover prior art systems, because it is extremely flexible andcomprehensive while still very easy to use. For example, to findmaterial of interest, the user is not forced to waste time navigatingthrough numerous and confusing subject matter area reduction filterspresented in serial fashion as is typical of the prior art. As mentionedabove, the conventional prior art system requires the user to work withat least three separate and disparate search levels. In contrast, in thepresent invention, subject matter area control buttons 312 allow theuser to identify an initial broad area of search for a group oflogically related messages. This can include, for example, messagesrelating to various broad reasons and lessons discussed by other usersof the online service provider (or as found in the third party contentareas) identified under the headers “Trading Reasons” and “TradingLessons” respectively; messages relating to particular company stocks,identified under the “Stocks” header; or even messages relating tospecific customized areas of interest to the user grouped under theheader of “My Preferences.” Again, these are but examples of usefulsubject matter headings in the field of financial discussion groups, andspecific identifications of subject matter will vary according to thearea of interest.

The user selects a message subject matter area, therefore, by depressingany one of the control buttons 312. At that time, the user is thenpresented in a first display area 315 with a more detailed subjectmatter area menu 316 consisting of options for narrowing their query, inthe form of individual message query filter parameters 317, whichcorrespond to classifications of messages that have been pre-indexedunder the particular subject matter area. For example, as illustrated inFIG. 3b, after clicking on the subject matter area button “TradingReasons,” a number of more specific classifications are presented asmessage query filter parameters 317 to the user in expandable treeformat. Thus, unlike the prior art, the user is not required to changescreens to select a new subject area (i.e., by moving back one level),and can move on to the next level of a more specific logical search ofmessages (i.e., classifications) without changing screens.

The menu 316 of parameters 317 is presented visually to the user in whatis known in conventional terms as a tree-structured menu. Preferably,for ease of use, this tree menu has a shallow depth (i.e., number oflevels) and reasonable breadth (i.e., number of items per level) that ismanageable, and which permits a user to visualize all possibleselections without having to perform time consuming scrollingoperations.

Generation of tree-structured menus is well-known in the art, and sowill not be discussed at length here. The use of a tree-structured menuis especially advantageous within the context of the present invention,nonetheless, since it permits a user to rapidly identify those filteringparameters corresponding to reasons cited by community members asaffecting or motivating their behavior. These reasons are set up assubject matter area classifications, so that they are pre-indexed bydatabase routine 240 and easily located and retrieved from index 260.

Again, in the present preferred embodiment, the query filter parameters317 presented here as classifications falling under the subject matterarea header “Trading Reasons,” are factors commonly associated withactions or transactions (buying or selling) securities or options. Theseinclude such factors as technical charting indicators, specific eventsthat may affect the stock price (a split announcement for example),rumors, tips from friends, etc. These factors (classifications) arebroken into subclassifications as well, which are viewable by clickingon the “+“symbol for such parameter 317. For instance, classification“Charting” is broken down into 9 sub-classifications identified as“Basic Patterns,” “Candlesticks,” “Chart Pattern,” “Gaps,” MovingAverages,” Support/Resistance,” “Trendlines,” and “Triangles.” The usercan query and find all messages falling under the general classification“Charting,” or, alternatively, can select one of the sub-classificationsinstead. At an even more granular or controlled level, the user cansearch messages falling into various sub-classifications within thesub-group “Basic Patterns,” such as those relating to “Head andShoulders,” “Inverted Head & Shoulders,” “Rounded Bottom” “Rounded Top,”etc., all of which are commonly understood technical analysis tools inthe field of financial instrument trading. It should be apparent thatsuch classifications, sub-classifications, etc. are merely illustrativeof the parameters that could be identified in menu 316, and that thepresent invention is not limited to any specific set of the same. Forexample, in an interface geared towards the automotive field, classesmay include national origins of vehicles (i.e., USA, Sweden, etc. ).Sub-classes might include particular makes of vehicles (i.e., Chevrolet,Saab, etc.) Further sub-classes might include particular messagesindexed for quality, warranty, price, performance, luxury, reliability,and so on. The particular implementation of the menu, of course, can betailored to the features/functions associated with the message boardsystem in question, so that reasonable allowance is made for variationsin the content of such messages.

It can be seen, immediately, that the benefits of intelligentlyclassifying the message data items from the very beginning (i.e., in amanner that reflects common logical constructs used within theparticular community of users) means that the user can more easilylocate information of interest from the interface as well, if the latteris set up to utilize such classifications. In contrast, with the priorart system, the user might have to manually explore dozens of rawnewsgroups before hitting on a relevant message that containsinformation relating to charting techniques as noted above. If the userthen adds such newsgroup to his/her preferences, the chances of findingmore content within such group relating to charting techniques may, infact, be very slim, because of the fact that people rarely take the timeto make sure that subject matter is correctly classified within aparticular newsgroup. This is due, of course, to the fact that newgroupsthemselves are not logically arranged in a manner that makes this easyto do. Thus, if the user has configured his/her interface in the sameway to include other newsgroups for the same reason, the problem ismultiplied, and the experience is even more frustrating because of thelack of correlation between the user's preferences (i.e., a desire tosee material pertaining to charting techniques) and the materialactually presented to him/her (a large number of message on completelyunrelated topics). While some prior art message systems attempt toorganize the raw newsgroup data, they do so only in minimal fashion;i.e., by grouping individual raw newsgroups within broader headings suchas “Finance,” “Health,” etc. There is no attempt made to analyze and/orintelligently classify the substance of the messages within such rawdata feeds. Thus, there is, in effect, no easy or convenient method inthe prior art for the user to have large amounts of raw data broken downand structured in logical clusters of data pertaining to concepts thatare of most interest to him/her, or the community as a whole.

Another subject matter area control button 312 corresponds generally to“Trading Lessons” learned by subscribers from a particularaction/transaction. The menu for this subject matter area can includecollections of information that allow community members to quicklyisolate and understand collective learnings of the community as a whole.For example, the user can filter messages based on a categorycorresponding to messages by persons who purchased a stock too early,and what characterized such transaction, so that others can learn fromcommon mistakes. In this fashion, the reasons, lessons, etc., of theentire community of users, created in raw, unorganized form, cannevertheless be processed, reviewed and understood by other usersaccording to the latter's needs, interests, etc.

Similarly, another subject matter area control button 312 includescollections of messages corresponding to categories of informationcollected and sorted for particular companies, industries, etc.

In any event, at this time, with menu 316 displayed, a second, morerefined searching operation, or query, can be effectuated by the user byselecting any one (or more) of the query parameters 317, so that messagefalling under such classification can be retrieved. This query is sentto community search robot 231 as noted above, so the user can query allthe records in database 242 on server 220. This additional level offiltering and selection gives the present invention an additionaladvantage over the prior art because, again, this operation can takeplace without changing levels, screens, etc. Moreover, very few priorart systems known to applicants permit searching of messages in thefirst place; this means that records in the message database are usuallyreviewed in serial, sequential fashion which is slow and unproductive.More importantly as messages are extracted and posted, they arecontinuously built as collections of messages falling within aparticular predefined subject matter area/class/subclass index,corresponding to the message query filter parameters 317 presented inthe user interface. In other words, when the user picks the “RoundedTop” sub-class noted in FIG. 3b, there is already a predefined index 241that has been built to contain all the relevant messages correspondingto this subclass/filtering selection. Notably, within the serverdatabase 242, messages grouped under the subclass “Rounded Top” areplaced there according to sorting logic as mentioned above, so that forexample, when responding to a message in the “Rounded Top” sub-categoryarea, the response itself would also fall within this area, despite thefact that it may contain no mention of this term anywhere in theresponse.

Accordingly, during a query operation of the present invention, themessages can be searched in a manner that goes far beyond that availablein the art, because it is not limited simply searching the actual textof the message itself. Instead, queries are performed on pre-defined,logical groupings of subject matter already constructed for the user'sconvenience. In this manner, the user's interaction with the system isgreatly facilitated and enhanced, because they can find, explore andreview relevant subject matter messages in a manner not possible withconventional prior art message board system using large collections ofunorganized data. In essence, a message board system of the presentinvention operates as a kind of vigilant and diligent electroniclibrarian, constantly processing message items (extracting raw contentor and classifying user postings) as they are presented to the system,so that they can be easily retrieved in logical clusters that are mostintuitive from the perspective of persons involved in a particular fieldof interest, such as finance, medicine, entertainment, health, etc.

The subject matter area control buttons are also coded so that if theuser moves the cursor under the button marked “Stocks,” for example, itis highlighted to provide visual feedback to the user, and whenactivated, the button marked “Trading Reasons” is moved to make way forthe new “Stock” labelled control button. The corresponding message queryfilter parameters for this subject area would then be made visible infirst area 315.

As the appropriate group of messages are located by community searchrobot 231, a visible listing of the same is provided to the user in asecond display area 320, in what can be thought of essentially as aretrieved message listing display area, or a message group detail area.In this area, each message matching the user-selected filter isidentified by an entry 325 that lists such data as subject, author,date, and/or a few words excerpted (usually the first few words) forsuch message. As they are all generally related to the same logical“topic” (by virtue of the query operation) it is not necessary at thisstage to waste display space in this area by including a description forthis parameter. After all the matching entries of the group areretrieved, they can be sorted in conventional fashion (i.e., by date,author, etc.) by activating sorting buttons 330 above such entries.

At this point, the user can use any one of a number of differentcommands to perform operations with the messages 325 listed with anentry in area 320. First, the user can discard the retrieved messages. Anew search query can be executed, simply by selecting another one of thefilter parameters 317 in message query menu 316, and without everleaving interface 310. Alternatively, a complex search query might beexecuted by selecting more than one query filter parameter 317, so thatonly entries satisfying both criteria (i.e., two overlapping logicalgroups of messages) are retrieved by community search robot 231. Whilethis is more slow (because it involves more effort on the part of searchrobots on the server to coordinate two searches)and may reduceusability, it can be included if desired for limited circumstances.

As another alternative, the user can activate a button on the mouse (orother pointing device) when the cursor has selected an entry 325, andthis then provides an additional menu of options. In particular, theuser can perform any of the following operations at this point:

Search this Group: this has the effect of making a text entry dialog boxappear, and the code associated with the interface will search for anddisplay those messages from the retrieved group which include that text.

Show Author's Messages: this has the effect of displaying within displayarea 320 only those messages from the retrieved group that were postedby the author of the selected message

Add Message: see below; this lets a user add a message

Edit Message: permits an author, in some cases, to alter the contents ofan original message

Highlight Author: this has the effect of permanently marking the authorof the selected message as a favorite of the user; thereafter, postingsfrom this chosen author are shown in bold type in the group detail area320

Unhighlight Author: removes the author of the selected message as afavorite of the user

Ignore Author: permanently designates the author of the selected messageas someone whose postings should be ignored; thereafter, messages fromthis author are still retrieved and displayed in group detail area 320,but such messages show up with an italicized designation “Ignored”

Unignore Author: removes the author's designation as someone to beignored

Add to Favorites: adds the currently selected group to a new queryparameter that can be immediately accessed under the “Custom” subjectmatter area control button 312

Remove from Favorites: removes the currently selected group from theCustom query parameter menu

View Related Trades: when the present invention is used with anintelligent trading program that also allows individual trades to becoded with classifications matching the query parameters (i.e., if atrade is indicated to have a Reason, Lesson, or Symbol), then activatingthis key opens a new window for the user to see any and all of his/hertrades that have a coding matching the query parameter used by the userfor the present query

View Author's Trades: as above, except it uses the author in question

Chart this Symbol: this option is available only when the “Stocks”groups is chosen; this links to another window where another applicationprogram, such as ProphetCharts sold by the present assignee, generates achart for the stock in question;

Find Author in Chat Room: Chat rooms are commonly used in message boardbased communities, and are preferred by many subscribers since itpermits direct communication. Often, however, because of the number andlogical partitioning of such chat rooms, it is difficult to locate aparticular person of interest to the subscriber, even if that person iscurrently logged into a specific chat room. By allowing the user to knowwhere the author is, and to be instantly transported to such chat room(if the author is in a chat room), the present invention greatlyfacilitates and enhances community interactions and bondings betweensubscribers. When the author is not already in a chat room, this featurecan still be activated to send an alert to the user if and when suchauthor does actually enter into a chat room in the future.

These are merely illustrative of the various kinds of useful operationsthat can be performed with these entries, and other examples will beapparent from the present teachings.

Assuming instead the user wishes to examine the substance of any of theretrieved messages, this is done simply by selecting one of the entries325 through the use of a mouse, cursor, etc. At that time, a thirddisplay area 340, which can be thought of as a “message detail” area,provides a visible image of the substance or content of the selectedmessage. As with prior art systems, the user can use various controlbuttons 355 to effectuate common operations, such as looking at theprevious or next message, replying, searching for text, etc. Asignificant distinction, however, lies in the fact that in the presentinvention, the contents of the message are simultaneously visible withthe listings of the retrieved messages. This means that, at any moment,the user has access and can easily perceive and/or manipulate all levelsof his/her query, from the broadest subject matter delineation (subjectmatter area control button 312), to the next levelclassification/subclassification (query filter parameter 317), to thefinal level of retrieved messages (entries 325).

An additional subject matter area control button 312 labelled “Custom”includes a menu of control options reserved for customizing theinterface to the user's particular needs and tastes. This menu, shown inFIG. 3c, can provide a variety of additional functionality. For example,it provides an additional list of filtering options that are used as alogical screen or overlay over other search and query operationsperformed under other subject matter areas 312. For instance, as notedearlier, a user might elect to always ignore postings by a particularauthor, regardless of their relevance to a particular query made under aparticular subject area. These postings, then, can be made to neverappear to the user in message listing rare 320, even if they otherwisematch the search logic used by the user for a particular searchoperation. Alternatively, they can still be retrieved by marked withsome indicia as noted earlier. Similarly, the user might compile a listof his/her favorite authors, and by selecting this entry in the menuarea 315, all of this person's entries might be displayed in messagelisting area 320.

Other more complex searching features or intelligent content groupingscan be implemented by providing a limited number of dedicated,customizable search robots 232 on server 220 to each member of thecommunity. These dedicated search robots 232, unlike community robots231 that create the shared collections of message postings identifiedunder general subject matter headings, serve particular usersindividually, and coordinate with database management system 240 tocreate customized collections of data of interest to the particular userbased on regular polling and reviewing of data records 271. As one wayof controlling the creation and use of customizable search robots 232 sothat they do not overload server 220, individual users can be chargedfor exceeding a pre-defined number of customized filtering options.Other functions and variations for the “customize” feature will beapparent to those skilled in the art.

As a further optional add-on feature, the user can also activate atabulation window area 360 as seen in FIG. 3D, which can be adjusted toappear either as part of, or separately from the other display areasnoted above. This feature is provided as additional general intereststatistical information for the members of the electronic communitysharing the message board system. For example, a “Top 10” list of mostfrequent posters can be compiled, to inform the members of activeparticipants in the community. Alternatively, an entry 361 correspondingto the top most followed companies, the most read (popular) authors,etc., can be selected instead. After selecting a particular entry 361,the user is then presented with an additional pop-up window 365providing more detailed information, including a ranking identifying theonline name of the most prolific authors, the number of postings theyhave made, the date of the most recent posting, etc. For additional userbenefit, an optional linking feature can also be implemented so that,upon viewing such rankings in window 365, the user can thenautomatically click and see the set of postings for such author/company,etc. in message listing area 320, and peruse them in the normal fashiondescribed above. As noted earlier above, an additional “take me to theauthor's chat room” option can be implemented at this level, as well, sothat further interaction can be immediately provided with popularauthors on the system.

Instead of occupying another window, these same “Top 10”-type linksmight instead be suitably located under yet another subject matter arecontrol button 312 (such as the “Custom” button discussed above) so thatthey could be pulled up in the same fashion as the listings describedabove for “Trading Reasons” and the other groupings described above forease of reference. The variations of course will be a function of theparticular subject matter addressed by the message board system. Theinformation presented in tabulation window area 360 and detailedtabulation window area 361 can be gleaned as part of normaladministrative overhead operations of database management routine 230.

The inventive interface 310 thus provides a single integratedinteractive window for searching, perusing and posting messages to anonline message board system. The user is provided with both communitybased and customized sets of search parameters under broad subjectmatter headers 312. Additional narrowing filter parameters are thenprovided in an expandable tree-format to avoid prior art cumbersome,sequential multiple-page formats, which tend to confuse and slow downinteraction between the user and the service provider. This reduction indemands on the user's attention and time results in greater ease of useand enjoyment of the interactive session with an online providermaintaining the message board system.

The display areas and functionality shown in FIGS. 3b, 3 c and 3 d aregenerated using well-known programming techniques, and the specifics ofthe same are not material to the present invention except as describedherein. Nonetheless, a listing of the important source code routinesused in the present invention is appended to the end of the presentdisclosure as Appendix A. Also, for purposes of the present invention adetailed description of those features commonly found and understood inapplication windowing technology (i.e., such as sizing, scrolling,handling and the like) is not provided. Such features can be implementedin any one of many techniques known in the art, and the invention is notlimited in any way by such specific implementations.

Operation of Content Collection and Posting System

FIG. 4 is a simplified diagram detailing the basic components of apreferred embodiment of a content collection and posting system 400 ofthe present invention. As noted earlier, this system is implemented onconventional network server associated with an online data serviceprovider. Note that where applicable, like reference numerals in FIG. 4are intended to refer to like structures and features of the presentinvention as presented in FIG. 2.

One of the main advantages of the present content collection/postingsystem is that it can be intelligently programmed to carry outmessage/data extraction from other online newsgroups, such as UseNet.The system can take into account a number of desired extractionparameters, including but not limited to service provider specifiedqueries 402; auto generated community based queries 404; user customizedqueries 406; and content site information 408. Service providerspecified queries 402 correspond generally to data filters conceived,authored, and/or formulated manually by operators associated with theservice provider. These data filters can be based on the specificsubject matter of the message board system, so that, for example, a datafilter for a financial community is set up to look for discussions of aparticular stock. Similarly, a medical community of online users mightspecify that materials associated with medical developments in aspecific field (e.g. diabetes treatments) should be extracted.Additional data filters for additional subjects of course can bemanually set up in the same fashion. As the service provider typicallyhas some expertise in the particular area, this allows for customizeddata building that will likely be of interest to prospectivesubscribers. The service provider specified queries 402 can be set toexecute periodically (i.e., daily) to update system 400 with new datausing well known conventional scheduling logic.

Supplementing the service provider specified queries 402 areauto-generated community based queries 404. These data extractionfilters are generated as a result of monitoring subscriber query andsubscriber postings made to database system 240. In other words, as eachquery/message is handled by system 200, it is broken down and analyzedfor keywords, which are then tabulated. Based on such tabulation, aservice provider can quickly identify new subject matter of generalinterest to the particular online community. For instance, ongoingevents may trigger a sudden interest in a new topic, such as in the caseof an financial community, a previously unlisted company might becomethe center of attention because of news stories read by the subscribers.When this happens, the company of interest is likely to be identifiedseveral times, both in postings and in queries, by the subscribers tosystem 200. By extracting and tabulating keywords in such posting andqueries, a numerical ranking or index can be built of subjects that areapparently of current interest to the community; thus, the particularcompany is one of the more highly mentioned data items, it will appearhigher in the numerical ranking/index. Similar examples will be apparentfor other fields of interest, such as medicine, health, collecting, art,education, computers, movies, literature, sports, science, etc. Thisnumerical index can be used on a daily basis by the service provider toautomatically extract information of interest to the online community inone of two manners: (1) by serving as a recommended “hot topic” listthat can be manually scanned by an operator, and be used to manuallyformulate a new service provider specified query 402; and/or (2) byserving as an input to an automatic data filter generator, so that autogenerated community based query 404 is created. In either case, the newquery can be added to the set of data filters to be used for extractingcontent of interest from various online content sites. The status of theuser, including whether such user is paying for subscribership or not,can also be factored into the consideration to ensure that preferredsubscribers are given an appropriately weighted voice in the decisionsaffecting the online community.

It can be seen that the system of the present invention is self-tuning,or auto-configuring, in the sense that it intelligently monitors“feedback”—interests of its subscribers—and uses this information todynamically build new content of the same nature. In this way, it isexpected that the present invention will enhance the “stickiness” of aparticular web based service provider, by which it is generally meantthat the service is more likely to retain its subscriber base, and keepsuch subscribers actively engaged when they are visiting such site.Since this factor is of prime importance to advertisers (i.e., itincreases the chances that their ads will be seen) it is furtherexpected that this will increase the appeal of message board systemsthat include the enhancements of the present invention. This means alsothat message board systems utilizing the present invention shouldcontinuously become more popular with its members, since it constantly(dynamically) tries to improve content, organization, etc. in responseto its user's desires, to and in accordance with their demonstratedlevel of interest (i.e., their status).

In addition to the above data filters, additional data filters for datamining or extraction can be based on user customized queries 406. Inother words, as part of the service provided by an online message boardsystem, a certain amount of resource overhead can be allocated toassisting users to locate customized/individualize content beyond thatalready collected by the community based content filters noted above.This again further enhances and increases the appeal of the presentinvention, since users can be given some capability for creating theirown content libraries for later perusal, again, in a degree appropriatefor their respective status.

Finally, information regarding useful/available content sites 408 (e.g.UseNet) can also be accounted for, based on access arrangements reachedwith such entities. These sites then serve as the raw source materialfor the data items stored in the present system. In some instances itmay be possible to have such raw data already logically arranged in amanner that is congruent with the data architecture of the presentinvention. In other words, through suitable cooperation between theservice provider and the content site, a content site 408 can arrangeits data such that it matches the groupings on server 220 and thereforereduces computational overhead on the latter. While this is notnecessary, it can be a useful enhancement to the operation of thepresent invention.

These are but examples, of course, and other extraction parameters willbe apparent to one of ordinary skill from the teachings herein. With theaforementioned data extraction parameters in hand, a search synthesisroutine 410, implemented with conventional programming logic suitablefor execution on server 220, then builds a series of data filters thatare then passed on to a content extraction and posting routine 415. Thiscontent extraction and posting routine 415 can also be implemented withwell-known techniques to process the data filters in accordance withprioritization information from prioritization routine 418. Generallyspeaking, prioritization routine 418 can be programmed in any well knownmanner to accommodate a priority specification desired by the serviceprovider. For example, the service provider may specify that serviceprovider specified queries 402 should be executed prior toauto-generated community based queries 404 (or vice versa). Anidentification of the order of which content sites to be mined can alsobe specified for example. Other prioritization specification data andschemes can be easily accommodated in a similar manner and can beimplemented using conventional programming logic. While prioritizationroutine 418 is shown separately from search synthesis routine 410 forillustrative purposes, it is understood, of course, that the two mightbe integrated in some applications, or that the former routine might beincluded within other software modules associated with thecontent/posting system of the present invention.

Content extraction and posting routine 415 interacts with a series ofsoftware search robots 430. For a particular content site #1, one ormore search robots extract and post content (messages, news postings,image data, audio data, etc.) in accordance with the sequence and logicspecified in the data filters passed on by content extraction andposting routine 415. The raw content extracted by search robots 430 ispassed on to database interface 440, where it is broken up andcategorized as described briefly above, and in more detail below. Thepostings made by search robots 430 are also passed on by databaseinterface 440 as explained further herein. As such software searchrobots are well-known in the art, they are not described in detailherein.

Thus, the content extraction and posting system 400 of the presentinvention allows for an online message board system to create an initialcontent base of interest to prospective subscribers, and to dynamicallyupdate or tune this content base so as to reflect the current interestsof its ongoing subscribers. While the functions and features describedabove are unique to the present invention, it is expected that thesoftware routines embodying the same can be implemented by those skilledin the art in accordance with the present teachings using a variety ofconventional programming techniques, and the present invention is by nomeans limited to any particular hardware/software implementation.

Operation of Message Storage/Indexing/Retrieval System

FIG. 5 is a simplified diagram detailing the basic components of apreferred embodiment of message indexing/retrieval system 500 of thepresent invention that coordinates with the content extraction andposting system 400 and user message board interface 300 discussed above.Note that where applicable, like reference numerals in FIG. 5 areintended to refer to like structures and features of the presentinvention as presented in FIGS. 2 and 4.

The first component of message indexing/retrieval system 500 is acontent sort routine 510 that receives, processes and sorts raw contentfrom content extraction system 400. The sorting logic used, of course,will vary from application to application, but can be specified by theservice provider using a group/classification build routine 560. Forexample, as noted above, content is processed to extract informationthat can be classified under the general subject matter grouping label“Trading Reasons.” Further sub-classifications are based on content thatrelates to a discussion of “Head and Shoulders” for example, as see inFIG. 3B. These groupings and sub-classification, which serve as thebackbone for later user query/postings, can be set up in advance by theservice provider, or, alternatively, can be constructed automatically bya group/classification build routine 560. In the latter case, thegroupings and sub-classifications are generated again based onmonitoring user queries and postings, so that new data clusters ofinterest to the community are not only extracted, but also structuredand arranged logically on server 220 so that they can be easily accessedby subscribers. Notably, the sorting logic contained in routine 510 canbe the same, or different from that used by content extraction andposting routine 415. In some instances it may be preferable, forexample, to use relatively broad data filters for content extraction andposting routine 415, and then have the raw content broken down laterinto finer classifications within server 220.

The raw content, therefore, is then logically stored by databasemanagement routine 540 to a conventional database 570 consisting ofseveral data records 571. In the case of a pure text message basedsystem, for example, each such record will include such information asthe message author, message text, and message data. Other fields, suchas message subject, and message classification data (grouping, index,etc.) can also be stored depending on the application, along with othermultimedia information as desired (audio, video information, preferablyin compressed format).

In accordance with grouping/classification parameters specified byroutine 560, a series of individual group indexes 560 are constructed bydatabase management routine 540 as well. Group indexes 560 correspond,generally to the subject matter labels presented to the user ininterface 300 (FIG. 3b) under the subject matter header buttons 312. InFIG. 5, under group indexes 560 are sub-classification indexes 561 a,561 b, etc., corresponding generally to one for each of the parametersdisplayed in detailed group/message subject matter menu 316 (FIG. 3).Thus, for example, in FIG. 5, a list of messages 561 a is constructedand maintained, falling under the three level classification category“Trading Reasons”—“Charting”—“Head and Shoulders,” which category alsoappears as a query parameter 317 (FIG. 3b) to the user. The same datasubclassification/index structure is generated and maintained bydatabase management routine 540 (FIG. 5) for the “TradingReasons”—“Charting”—“Rounded Top” query parameter 317 shown in FIG. 3b,and for every other query parameter that can be accessed by the userusing interface 310. The advantage of indexing the data in this fashion,is that it can be easily and quickly located by database managementroutine in response to a user query. Thus, individual records A, B, C,D, etc., can be rapidly located and retrieved, giving the userextraordinarily fast access to data that has been classified inaccordance with community based interests and guidelines.

The other components of message retrieval/indexing system 500 include auser query interface routine 530, and a user posting interface routine535. These routines are generally responsible for interacting throughthe data link to field queries and postings channeled through userinterface 300 (FIG. 3b) running on the user's computing system. Allqueries, commands and postings from the user are translated into a formsuitable for handling by database management routine 540. For the mostpart, these routines can be implemented in any well-known manner tocoordinate with queries, commands and message postings sent by the user,and to return relevant data records from the database management routine540 in response to such queries and commands. In a preferred embodiment,as noted earlier, a series of community search robots 531 andcustomizable search robots 532 are used to coordinate between the userand database management routine 540 as discussed above in connectionwith FIG. 3b. While these search robots are shown as part of user queryinterface 530, it is apparent that they can be implemented in manydifferent variations that are either separate and/or integrated withdatabase management routine 540 to effectuate the operations discussedabove in connection with FIGS. 3a to 3 d.

In one especially useful variation, to improve response time from theuser's perspective, his/her customized message categories (i.e., for aparticular group, class, subclass or author that have been identifiedunder the “Custom” subject matter header) can be downloaded immediatelyby the user query interface 530 at the beginning (or intermittentlyduring quiet periods) of an interactive session. Preferably, this datais transmitted in compressed form, and uncompressed at the user's site,where are there are more dedicated resources for such task, and so thatthe pre-loading does not interfere with normal operations. Since thesecustomized areas represent subjects of most interest to the user (sincethey are already designated as favorites), it is more likely that theseare to be queried during any session, so it is advantageous to have themin hand quickly. Again, this improves the user's experience with themessage board system, and increases the likelihood that they will remainwith the service provider.

Similarly, instead of relying purely on the individual's priordesignations of “favorite” areas, the system may instead base decisionsfor pre-loading of messages on community wide derived statistical dataof popularity of subject categories, which can be collected in themanner described above. Thus, the system can, at all times, bedynamically constructing and maintaining sets of compressed filesrepresenting collections of community wide favorite subject matter/classmessage data items. These collections may represent, for example,individual files representing the top 10, 20 or 50 subject/class areasmost commonly queried areas. In this manner the composition of the filesis based primarily on a democratic process that reflects community widepreferences. During a session, therefore, the system may send a singlefile, in advance, containing the entirety of messages for the top 10subject/class areas. For another user with a faster link, more memory,etc., a larger file might be sent instead, with the top 20 subject/classareas, so that the pre-loading is tailored to the specifics of theuser's operating environment. In similar fashion, in some embodiments itmay be desirable to implement a variation whereby when a user makes aquery for a particular subject/class of message entries, the systemagain predictively decides that the user is likely to ask for thecontent of other related subject/class areas that are either logicallyrelated, or contained within a file having the same level of popularity(i.e. the queried subject/class is within one of the pre-loadable files,so the other subject/class messages in such file are also transmitted).

This approach has the advantage of anticipating the likely possibilitythat the user will eventually, during some portion of the session, alsowish to query such subject matter areas. Thus, to some extent, thesystem can speculate and/or predict the user's behavior (based oncommonly observed characteristics of the users of the system) and thencache these message entries locally in compressed form. If thesematerials are-easily loadable within the interface (becausedecompression on the user's end is typically a fast process compared toa transmission process for the same size file) the user experiences asignificantly reduced response time from the normal, linear,query—search—return process described earlier, and which is prevalent inprior art message board systems.

This reduction in query related traffic from the user's side alsotranslates into a number of additional performance gains. In particular,the data link bandwidth is more efficiently used. For example, the linkbandwidth can now be used for other purposes during the session (such asfor generating other user queries, receiving user postings, transmittingadvertising materials to the user interface, etc.).

More importantly, by off-loading most of the “processing” off themessage server, the efficiency of the message board system can beimproved as well. In other words, the number of actual querytransactions on the server 220 can be minimized, because the user's data(and other popularly retrieved data) is pre-cached, pre-compressed, anddownloaded to his/her local machine where it can be handled far faster,and without delays caused by other user transactions. Thus, the data isstrategically located to areas where there are more computing resourcesto process it according to the user's requirements.

The final component of message retrieval/indexing system 500 is messagetraffic monitor routine 538. This routine is generally configured toanalyze user queries, commands, postings and interface settings (i.e.,which groups/authors are listed as favorites of a user) to tabulate theinformation discussed above in connection with 3D, such as hotdiscussion areas, including the “Top 10” posters list noted above forexample. In other words this routine monitors such information as whatgroups, classifications, sub-classifications, topics, authors, chatrooms, interface customizations, etc., are being accessed the most (orleast); what users are posting the most entries, etc., and creates oneor more tabulation databases 580-582 (FIG. 5b) that can be used for anumber of useful purposes.

For example, whenever a user makes a query for a particular stock symbolX using one of the standard group/subclassification index searchparameters, this can be used for incrementing a “hit” counter for suchstock symbol X as it is registered in a group/classification tabulationdatabase 581. Other group/classifications parameters can be similarlyidentified and tracked to create current hot topic lists. In thoseembodiments where the user is predictively given othersubject/classification content along with his/her requested content, itis preferable to include additional tabulating logic at the localmachine, so that the user's actual queries are monitored, and fed backto the message traffic monitor routine 538. In this manner, errors thatmight arise from falsely attributing “popularity” of subject matter(i.e., because it was downloaded to the user's interface) can beminimized, because only actual subject/class areas queried by the userare relied upon.

Similarly, the text of each user message posting can be broken down, anda record created in a database 582 for each keyword, along with acounter that is incremented for each usage of the keyword in other usermessages. The same can be done with author information, so that queriesmade to messages belonging to particular authors can be tracked with adatabase 582, or that postings made by particular authors can be trackedin a database 583. Furthermore, interface customizations done by otherusers of the online system can be captured and catalogued in aggregateform, such as user designations of highlighted authors, designations ofauthors to be ignored, groups of messages added to “favorites” under theCustom control button, etc., can also be compiled and displayed forcommunity perusal.

Finally, individual user “profile” records can be created and maintainedby the system, so that a user's selections, preferences, frequency ofselections of subject matter, etc., are tracked, and kept uniquely foreach such user. This provides the system provider with additional usefulsurvey information, as such profile can be correlated with standardizeddata to determine additional characteristics (income, assets, interests,education, etc.) of such user based on comparisons with otherindividuals having a similar profile. Furthermore, such profiles canalso be tabulated and analyzed to determine community wide prevalencerates for certain types of subject matter selections, preferences, etc.

The benefits of tabulating this information are many, including the factthat:

(1) New group/subclassification indexes can be recommended to theservice provider for inclusion in user interface 300 (FIG. 3) and/orautomatically added to such user interface by studying what categoriesare popular with a particular community of users; conversely, unpopularcategories of data can be eliminated or pruned to reduce clutter on theinterface seen by the user. Thus, the system can learn the interests ofits users, and build content classifications in accordance with suchfeedback.

(2) User interface 300 (FIG. 3) can be altered dynamically so thatsubject matter headers 312, or query parameters 317, can be re-arrangedbased on their popularity. In other words, the interface can be made toergonomically self-tune itself so that more popular items appear earlierin the menu, or at shallower branches of the tree menu 316, minimizingthe burden on the user to find subjects of interest.

(3) Extraction control by prioritization routine 418 (FIG. 4) can betailored based on data in tabulation databases 580-583, so that, forexample, content is retrieved by the search robots in proportion to theinterest level of the community. This permits a message board system tolearn the interests of its users, and then located and extract contentin direct relation or proportion to such content's popularity withinsuch community.

(4) New areas for content extraction can be gleaned from databases580-583 and passed in the form of an auto-generated community basedquery 404 (FIG. 4) based on analysis of keyword extractions of usermessage postings. Again, by studying the messages posted by its ownusers, the system can learn to find information most likely to retainthe interest of such subscribers. Thus, subscribers can be given more ofthe information they have already expressed a strong interest in.

(5) Statistics on user messages, queries, and customizations can bepackaged for general community consumption as an automatically generated“hot item” list (see FIG. 3D). Thus, users can immediately be alerted tonew topics, subjects, authors, useful interface customizations, etc.,that are of current interest, further increasing the appeal of thesystem, since now users can learn and benefit from individual andaggregate behavior, interests of the community.

(6) As noted earlier, decisions on how to build fast, pre-compressedfiles of popular subject matter areas can also be easily determined fromstudying community wide interest, as expressed in queries, postings,etc. This results in users getting more of the information they want,and faster.

(7) Demographics information concerning the subscribers can beindirectly gleaned from observing their queries and responses as postedto the system. This information, too, can be used for determiningappropriate advertisers, advertising, etc. For example, in a medicalbased community, if message traffic suggests a strong following anddiscourse in certain types of medications (say brand X), this permitsthe service provider to more accurately identify, select and targetappropriate advertisers, ads, etc., tailored to such audience.Furthermore, even the initial selection and setup of subject areas,classes, sub-classes, etc., can be designed based on marketing researchbased criteria, so that the mere selection of a particular subjectarea/class combination by a subscriber can be correlated immediatelywith other typically associated/expected interests of such user, userdemographics, user financial profiles, etc. This is less intrusive andmore likely to result in accurate user profiling than conventionallengthy online surveys, where people are inclined to provide incompleteand/or inaccurate information because of privacy sensitivities. In otherwords, a particular user's selections of materials can be monitored andcompared against reference data for a normalized group of individuals(i.e., from market or focus group research) to determine a probableeducation level, income, assets, and the like for such individual. Thismethod is more accurate in collecting true user profile information,since it is constantly refined, updated and improved (based on userselections) and does not require explicit input from him/her that wouldcause them to be less forthcoming about their true profilecharacteristics. This, in turn provides a tool for service providers toconstruct a more accurate profile of his/her subscribers, so thatcontent, ads, etc., can be more effectively managed and tailored to thecommunity as a whole.

All of the above monitorings can consider the status of a subscriber, aswell, in any tabulating calculations. For example, subscribers payingfor a premium level of service can be weighted heavier than users whoare using only minimal functionality of the system for free. Thus,again, the persons who are of most interest to the service provider canbe afforded the greatest “vote” in determining prioritizations, content,and structure of the online message board system.

In a preferred embodiment message traffic monitor routine 538 isdepicted as logically placed as an intermediary data buffer between userquery interface 530, user posting interface 535, and database managementsystem 540, so that tabulations of message keywords can be updatedquickly and kept current. Nevertheless, it is entirely possible that thebenefits of such routine can still be substantially enjoyed by settingup this routine to simply monitor access/storage operations performed bydatabase management routine 540, and to compute message statistical datafrom processing prestored records 571 in database 570. The particularimplementation will of course vary from environment to environment.Also, while not material to the present invention, an “inference” enginemight also be used to deduce related classifications from keywordsposted in user messages, so the entire process does not rely strictly onuser-specified topics or keywords.

Operation of Content Search System, Including Community and CustomizedSearch Robots

FIG. 6 is a flow chart detailing the general operation of the contentextract/posting system 400 and message index/retrieval system 500 of thepresent invention. As described in detail above, raw data content isextracted at step 600 in accordance with data filters and prioritizationlogic specified by the online service provider, which can be consideredas tracking feedback information 603. This content is then sorted basedon group/subclassification logic at step 610. At this point, too, anadditional monitoring routine 620 can be executed that is essentiallyidentical to that already discussed above on the user query/postingside, except with a slightly different perspective. In this variation,the present invention can essentially learn by studying message datafrom other content sites, and discover if there are other potentially“hot” areas that might also be of interest to the community members.This message data from other content sites, therefore, can be tabulatedand used in the same manner as discussed above in connection withdatabases 580-583.

At step 635, the processed content data is then built into appropriatemessage groupings/subclassifications for easy review and retrieval byusers according to the query parameters found in the user interface 300(FIG. 3b) as discussed above. These groupings/subclassifications alsobuilt based on received input data from user posting operations, whichbegin basically as illustrated at step 605. These posting are alsosorted at step 615 and monitored at step 625 as described earlier toglean posting statistical information.

Therefore, when a user first interacts with message board system of thepresent invention, a user interface routine 640 at server 220 (FIG. 2)downloads the user's previously defined interface 300 (FIG. 3b), whereit executes as a java based applet within the user's browser program. Atthis point, the user can execute a query at step 645 along the linesdescribed above, using any one or more of the query parameters 317, orsome other command (i.e., one of the operations specified in connectionwith entries 325). This query and/or command is transmitted upstream tothe server, where it is decoded at step 650 by the user query interface,and, in the case of a query, handed off the appropriate community orcustomized search robot. These queries are also monitored at step 655 asdescribed earlier to glean query tabulating information.

The search robots then retrieve the appropriate group/subclass messagesin accordance with the user specified search criteria at step 660. Theyare then downloaded to the user's system where they are accessible tothe user through the interface 300. At this point, at step 665, the usercan perform any of the aforementioned operations discussed in connectionwith FIGS. 3a-3 d, such as by posting a new message (in which case theprocess loops back to step 605), or by posting another query/command (inwhich case the process loops back to step 645). The messagepostings/queries are tracked in accordance with grouping/classificationrules 670, which, as explained above, preferably should changedynamically based on subject areas of interest to the community members.

Again, the behavior and prioritization of searching/posting performed bycommunity and customized search robots can be adjusted based on thestatus of a particular community member. In other words, members havinga higher status on the online message board system (achieved throughhigher subscription fees or usage for example) can be afforded fastertreatment, or have their queries/postings handled before lower statusmembers. Again, in this manner, members of the community can be treatedin accordance with a level of demonstrated interest and seriousness inthe affairs of the community as a whole, thus increasing the chancesthat such members will be retained by such service provider.

As alluded to above, to improve response times as perceived by the user,and to alleviate link congestion during a session, pre-loading of allthe user's customized search categories, or some number of most popularcategories can be done at step 640, so that they are immediately madeavailable for inspection within the user's interface. This approach canbe used for a number of areas (subject to memory constraints within theuser's computing system) so that the experience of interacting with themessage board system is also enhanced by the expediency in which theuser's queries are apparently handled. Other variations of thisfunctionality will be apparent to those skilled in the art from thepresent teachings.

While the present invention has been described in terms of a preferredembodiment, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that manyalterations and modifications may be made to such embodiments withoutdeparting from the teachings of the present invention. For example, itis apparent that the present invention would be beneficial used in anyenvironment where it is useful to collect, classify, and analyzevoluminous numbers of electronic messages. Other implementations for theinterface beyond those illustrated in the foregoing detailed descriptioncan be used suitably with the present invention. Accordingly, it isintended that the all such alterations and modifications be includedwithin the scope and spirit of the invention as defined by the followingclaims.

What is claimed is:
 1. An electronic content provider system for use bya community of subscribers, which system operates in part on an onlineserver, said system comprising: a first routine running on the onlineserver for retrieving general interest content accessible by all of thecommunity of subscribers; and a second routine running on the onlineserver for retrieving customized content compiled by the electroniccontent provider system on behalf of a particular subscriber in thecommunity of subscribers in response to one or more custom contentinterests identified in requests provided by said particular subscriberover a network to the electronic content provider system, saidcustomized content being made accessible by the electronic providersystem over the network only to said particular subscriber and othersubscribers requesting said customized content; a third routine runningon the server for processing at least said general interest content atpredetermined intervals to construct searchable collections of saidgeneral interest content, said searchable collections being arrangedinto a set of predefined query parameters; and a fourth routine runningon the server for interacting with a web browser program executing atsubscriber computer systems remote from the online server, said fourthroutine being adapted for handling subscriber queries to both saidgeneral interest content and customized content, such that saidsubscriber queries for said general interest content are based on saidset of predefined query parameters so that said fourth routine uses saidsearchable collections for responding to subscriber queries made to thegeneral interest content.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein said fourthroutine monitors queries from said subscribers to generate statisticalinformation regarding subject matter and/or authorship information forsaid entries.
 3. The system of claim 1, further including a fifthroutine for receiving message postings from the community ofsubscribers, and for processing said message postings in accordance withsaid set of predefined query parameters.
 4. The system of claim 1,wherein subscriber profile information is stored by said system,including data relating to predefined query parameters previously usedby a subscriber for formulating queries.
 5. The system of claim 1,wherein a subscriber can perform searching, listing and reviewingoperations associated with entries retrieved in response to saidsubscriber queries, said searching, listing and reviewing operationsoccuring simultaneously within a single window of said integratedinterface.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the community ofsubscribers can peruse said general interest content in logicalgroupings based on the system performing an analysis of said generalinterest content.
 7. A system for sharing information between acommunity of subscribers, the system comprising: an online server havinga storage routine for storing messages from the community of subscribersrelating to a set of subjects, as well as additional content derivedfrom at least one separate online source that also relates to said setof subjects; said online server further having a sorting routine forclassifying said messages and said additional content based on a ruleset that is defined at least in part by feedback derived from analyzingonline activity of the entire community of subscribers, said sortingroutine operating to create collections of said messages and saidadditional content that are searchable by at least some of the communityof subscribers based on a set of query parameters; and said onlineserver further having a query processing routine for handling subscriberqueries to said messages and said additional content, said queries beingbased on said set of query parameters so that said query processingroutine uses said collections of said messages and said additionalcontent for responding to said subscriber queries; and a queryformulation routine adapted to coordinate with said query processingroutine and to be executed within web browser programs used by suchsubscribers, said query formulation routine being capable of generatingsaid subscriber queries so that the query formulation routine canretrieve selected messages and/or selected content from said collectionsof messages and said additional content using said query parameters; aposting routine adapted to coordinate with said online server and to beexecuted within said web browser programs, said posting routine beingcapable of generating subscriber messages that can be communicated overa network from said web browser programs and posted to said onlineserver in accordance with said rule set.
 8. The system of claim 7,wherein said feedback includes parameters contained in or inferred fromsaid subscriber messages posted to said online server so that saidcollections of said messages and said additional content areautomatically generated by the system by analyzing materials authored bythe community of subscribers.
 9. The system of claim 7, wherein saidfeedback includes parameters contained in or inferred from saidsubscriber queries so that said collections of said messages and saidadditional content are automatically generated by the system byanalyzing materials read by the community of subscribers.
 10. The systemof claim 7, wherein the subscribers can perform searching, listing andreviewing operations associated with said selected messages and/or saidselected content within a single window of an interface for said queryformulation routine, said reviewing operations including a presentationto the subscriber of all substantive information for at least onemessage entry and/or for at least one item of additional content. 11.The system of claim 7, wherein in considering different subscriberrequests the query formulation routine prioritizes requests forretrieving selected messages and/or selected content based on differentstatus levels associated with said different subscribers including anysubscription fees paid by said different subscribers.
 12. An electroniccontent provider system comprising: a first routine for retrieving firstinformation, including multi-media content, accessible to subscribers ofthe content provider system in accordance with a variable filteringmechanism, and which filtering mechanism is based on first informationcategories of interest to subscribers to the content provider system;and a second routine for sorting said first information and storing itin a form searchable by said first information categories by all of saidsubscribers; a third routine for handling a first type of subscriberquery to said first information based on predefined query parameters sothat said first information categories are used for responding to saidfirst type of subscriber query; and a fourth routine for retrievingsecond information accessible by only a selected group of saidsubscribers of the content provider system; and a fifth routine forsorting said second information and storing it in a form searchable bysecond information categories; wherein said second informationcategories constitute logical customized compilations of contentcollected and maintained based on specific subscriber requests; a sixthroutine for handling a second type of subscriber query to said secondinformation so that said second information categories are used forresponding to said second type of subscriber query; and wherein saidfirst information is retrieved and configured as first informationcategories selectable individually within a subscriber content selectioninterface automatically and before any first type of subscriber query ismade to such first information categories; further wherein said secondinformation is retrieved by the content provider system and presented assecond information categories within said subscriber content selectioninterface only after a second subscriber query is made within a searchfield associated with the subscriber content selection interface. 13.The system of claim 12, wherein said first information categories arecreated in part automatically by the content provider system byexamining said first information retrieved with said variable filteringmechanism.
 14. The system of claim 12, wherein said third routinetabulates said predefined query parameters as used by subscribers insaid first type of subscriber query to create a numerical ranking offrequency of usage for said predefined query parameters such that saidsubscribers can identify which first information categories are mostfrequently reviewed by subscribers.
 15. The system of claim 12, whereinsaid fourth routine tabulates identifying parameters as used bysubscribers in postings of message information to create a numericalranking of frequency of usage for said identifying parameters such thatsaid subscribers can identify which first information categories aremost frequently posted to by subscribers.
 16. The system of claim 12,wherein subscriber profile information is maintained in the system,including information pertaining to first information categories queriedand/or posted to by each of such subscribers.
 17. The system of claim12, wherein said third and sixth routines prioritize a response to asubscriber based on a status level of said subscriber.
 18. A method ofoperating an electronic message board system used by a community ofsubscribers, and which system operates in part on an online server, saidmethod comprising the steps of: (a) storing message data on the onlineserver; and (b) constructing searchable collections of said messagedata, said searchable collections being generated and updatedautomatically by the system based on a set of predefined queryparameters such that at least a first set of said message data isaccessible to all of the community of subscribers; and (c) handlingsubscriber queries to said first set of message data by interacting witha web browser program executing at a subscriber computer system remotefrom the online server, said queries being based on said predefinedquery parameters; and (d) configuring an integrated interface forpermitting said subscriber to formulate said queries, said integratedinterface including: i) a first display region for providing a visibledisplay of a message list of at least some of any message entriesretrieved in response to said queries, said list including at least someidentifying parameters for each of said message entries; and ii) asecond display region for providing a visible display of at least somesubstantive information for a subscriber-selected one of said messageentries, said substantive information being simultaneously visible withsaid message list displayed in said first display region; whereinmessage entries, including the content for the same, are transmitted tothe subscriber computer system during a first online session in advanceof the subscriber requesting such entries based on monitoring subscriberqueries during said first online session and predicting which messageentries a subscriber is likely to request.
 19. The method of claim 18,further including a step (e): monitoring queries from the community ofsubscribers to generate statistical information regarding subject matterand/or authorship information for said message entries.
 20. The methodof claim 18, further including a step (e): receiving message postingsfrom the community of subscribers, and processing said message postingsin accordance with said predefined query parameters.
 21. The method ofclaim 18, wherein said integrated interface is configured so that thesubscriber can perform searching, listing and reviewing operationsassociated with said message entries simultaneously within a singlewindow of said integrated interface, said reviewing operations includinga presentation to the subscriber of all substantive information for atleast one of said message entries.
 22. A method of sharing informationbetween a community of subscribers, said system comprising: (a) storingmessages from such subscribers from the community of subscribersrelating to a set of subjects, as well as additional content derivedfrom at least one separate online source that also relates to said setof subjects; and (b) classifying said messages and said additionalcontent based on a rule set that is defined at least in part by feedbackderived from analyzing online activity of the entire community ofsubscribers, such that collections of said messages and said additionalcontent are created that are searchable by at least some of thecommunity of subscribers based on a set of query parameters; and (c)handling subscriber queries to said messages, said queries being basedon said query parameters so that said query processing routine uses saidcollections of said messages for responding to said subscriber queries;and (d) interacting with a query formulation routine executing withinone or more web browser programs used by such subscribers, said queryformulation routine being capable of generating said subscriber queriesso that the subscribers can retrieve selected messages and/or selectedcontent from said collections of messages and additional content usingsaid query parameters; (e) interacting with a posting routine alsoexecuting within said web browser programs, said posting routine beingcapable of generating subscriber messages that can be communicated overa network from said web browser programs and posted to said onlineserver in accordance with said rule set.
 23. The method of claim 22,wherein said feedback includes parameters contained in or inferred fromsaid subscriber messages posted to said online server so that saidcollections of said messages and said additional content areautomatically generated by the system by analyzing materials authored bythe community of subscribers.
 24. The method of claim 22, wherein saidfeedback includes parameters contained in or inferred from saidsubscriber queries so that said collections of said messages and saidadditional content are automatically generated by the system byanalyzing materials read by the community of subscribers.
 25. The methodof claim 22, wherein the subscribers can perform searching, listing andreviewing operations associated with said selected messages and/or saidselected content within a single window of an interface for said queryformulation routine, said reviewing operations including a presentationto the subscriber of all substantive information for at least onemessage entry and/or for at least one item of additional content. 26.The method of claim 22, wherein subscriber queries and subscribermessages for different subscribers are processed with a priority basedon different status levels associated with said different subscribers,including any subscription fees paid by said different subscribers. 27.A method of operating an electronic content provider system comprisingthe steps of: (a) retrieving first information accessible to subscribersof the content provider system in accordance with a variable filteringmechanism including multi-media content, which filtering mechanism isbased on first information categories of interest to said subscribers;and (b) sorting said first information and storing it in a formsearchable by said first information categories by all of saidsubscribers; (c) handling a first type of subscriber query to said firstinformation, based on predefined query parameters so that said firstinformation categories are used for responding to said first type ofsubscriber query; and (d) retrieving second information accessible byonly a selected group of said subscribers of the content providersystem; and (e) sorting said second information and storing it in a formsearchable by second information categories; and wherein said secondinformation categories constitute logical customized compilations ofcontent collected and maintained based on specific subscriber requests;(f) handling a second type of subscriber query to said secondinformation so that said second information categories are used forresponding to said second type of subscriber query wherein said firstinformation is retrieved and configured as first information categoriesselectable individually within a subscriber content selection interfaceautomatically and before any first type of subscriber query is made tosuch first information categories; further wherein said secondinformation is retrieved by the content provider system and presented assecond information categories within said subscriber content selectioninterface only after a second subscriber query is made within a searchfield associated with the subscriber content selection interface. 28.The method of claim 27, wherein said first information categories arecreated in part automatically by the content provider system byexamining said first information retrieved in accordance with saidvariable filtering mechanism.
 29. The method of claim 27, wherein saidpredefined query parameters as used by subscribers in said first type ofsubscriber query are tabulated to create a numerical ranking offrequency of usage for said predefined query parameters such that saidsubscribers can identify which first information categories are mostfrequently reviewed by subscribers.
 30. The method of claim 27, whereinsaid identifying parameters as used by subscribers in postings ofmessage information are tabulated to create a numerical ranking offrequency of usage for said identifying parameters such that saidsubscribers can identify which first information categories are mostfrequently posted to by subscribers.
 31. The method of claim 27, whereina user interface used by said subscribers is also modified automaticallyby evaluating which first information categories are queried and/orposted to by said subscribers.
 32. The method of claim 27, whereinqueries and message postings are performed with a priority based onstatus levels of subscribers.
 33. An online electronic content providersystem for use by online subscribers, the system comprising: a firstroutine for retrieving and organizing community content, said communitycontent being organized into information categories designated andcontrolled by an operator of the content provider system; and a secondroutine for processing queries from the online subscribers to saidcommunity content; and wherein said community content is made accessibleto all of the online subscribers; a third routine for processing acustomized query from a particular online subscriber for customizedcontent that is separate from said community content; a fourth routinefor retrieving and organizing said customized content in response tosaid customized query; wherein said customized content is madeaccessible to said particular online subscriber in addition to saidcommunity content; a fifth routine for generating one or more additionalcontent filters based on an evaluation of postings and/or queries madeby the online subscribers to said community content and/or saidcustomized content, said one or more additional content filters beingadapted for use by the first routine to supplement said communitycontent and said information categories with additional content ofinterest to the online subscribers.
 34. The system of claim 33, furtherincluding a sixth routine for prioritizing a sequence and frequency ofretrieval and organization of content by said first routine, said fourthroutine and said fifth routine.
 35. The system of claim 34, wherein saidfirst routine operates in accordance with an ordering specified forsearching online content sites.
 36. The system of claim 33, wherein saidone or more additional content filters are identified to said operatorto assist in designating and controlling said community content.
 37. Thesystem of claim 33, wherein at least some of said one or more additionalcontent filters are used by the online electronic provider system toautomatically supplement said community content without intervention ofsaid operator.
 38. The system of claim 33, wherein said communitycontent includes message postings from online newsgroups.
 39. The systemof claim 33, wherein said community content includes message postingsrelating to stocks retrieved periodically from online message boardsseparate from the online provider system.
 40. The system of claim 33,wherein said customized content is constructed by dedicated searchrobots whose number is restricted in accordance with processing capacityavailable to the content provider system.
 41. The system of claim 33,wherein said customized content is extracted by search robots from saidcommunity content.
 42. The system of claim 33, wherein said firstroutine is used to construct an initial content base for the communitycontent of the content provider system, and is used subsequently to finetune said community content by modifying the same based on monitoringqueries and postings of the subscribers.